Sen. Barbara Boxer says passage of her bipartisan bill is necessary for states to adequately plan their transit projects. House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, has called for another three-month extension while the House works on a new bill.

Washington -- Tea Party conservatives have managed to transform California Sen. Barbara Boxer into a paragon of bipartisanship in negotiations over a transportation bill that has become a debacle in the Republican-led House.

On Thursday, Boxer warned that the decision by House leaders to spurn her bipartisan bill and pass yet another three-month extension would create havoc in state planning for road, bridge and transit projects and empty the federal Highway Trust Fund.

Boxer dared House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to pass her bill with the help of House Democrats or throw transportation funding into chaos.

While not receiving the publicity of last summer's budget brinksmanship, the highway legislation is becoming a microcosm of Congress's inability to address basic economic issues.

Much of the nation's network of roads, bridges, transit and other infrastructure is near the end of its life span, while a growing population is putting the existing network under mounting stress, increasing congestion, wear and tear on vehicles and other costs, and hamstringing the nation's commerce.

Both parties refuse to raise the gasoline tax that funds highways and transit, leaving leaders scrambling to come up with money elsewhere.

Senate cooperation

Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has a reputation as a partisan warrior, worked closely with the committee's former chair, Sen. James Inhofe, a conservative Oklahoma Republican, to craft a $109 billion, two-year bill that contains many of the reforms Republicans have demanded, while protecting funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs that Democrats wanted.

Boxer said Inhofe is passionate about the bill in part because one of his constituents was killed when struck by debris from a decaying bridge while walking her baby. The bill passed the Senate 74-22, with support from about half of Senate Republicans.

It would consolidate multiple programs to cut red tape, and expand a new program to attract private investment that was successfully tested in Los Angeles. It has no earmarks.

For want of money the bill covers only two years instead of the traditional five. Still, it would provide some certainty needed to plan transportation projects, which can take decades to complete.

No bill from the House

The House, by contrast, has been unable to pass any bill. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's effort, a five-year, $270 billion bill, would have opened the entire U.S. coastline, including California's, to oil and gas drilling, gutted bicycle and pedestrian programs, expanded drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, increased the allowable weight and length of trucks on U.S. highways, cut off city transit systems from secure funding and given Congress authority to approve the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The drilling ostensibly would have produced royalties for the federal treasury that would have paid for the added spending at some point in the future, but was widely seen as a gimmick. Despite the expansion of drilling, conservatives rebelled at the higher spending.

Facing failure, Boehner did not bring the bill to a vote. For a time, Boehner indicated he might simply allow a vote on the Boxer-Inhofe bill, but in recent days has called for yet another three-month extension while the House works on a new bill.

Boxer is resisting, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is "not inclined" to pass another extension, setting up a potential showdown.